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The joy that Torontonians felt last night, after the Raptors beat the Pacers in Game 7, cannot be put into words. Rather, screams, cheers, and even tears, can help paint a more accurate picture of what took place in my living room, Jurassic Park, and the Air Canada Centre.

It was a great week to be a Torontonian: Drake released his highly anticipated album, Views (which was well worth the wait), the Maple Leafs won the 1st overall pick in the NHL draft lottery (I’m not a hockey fan, but this is a win), and the Jays beat the Rays.

To say that the vibe in Toronto was epic is an understatement. There’s something to be said about when a city comes together in the name of sport. My dad always told me, sport mirrors life, and I couldn’t agree more! The camaraderie and friendships that form between fans is so much fun. I can tell you, I have a little Raptors Twitter family who I engage with during games, and while we might not be at the ACC, we are certainly enjoying the game through a different perspective.

I am ashamed to say that this is my first blog post that I have written this month! I went on an unplanned hiatus from blogging because life became too busy and this truly affected my ability to be creative. When I did find myself at a computer, with ample opportunity to write, my creativity would not spark.

My good friend Carly, over at Charlotte’s Web, wrote a blog post that inspired me so much today about doing absolutely nothing! I have had a very busy summer, between friends’ weddings, my own wedding plans, work and play! Carly writes about the importance of taking time out of our hectic schedules to sit back and do nothing. She too writes about having “interruptions” that blocked her creativity. I truly relate to what she says because often I come up with great blog post ideas and I make a quick note in my phone to remind myself to write about that particular idea or topic. Unfortunately, that has yet to happen this month.

Sometimes it feels like I’m trying to pull inspiration out of thin air, forcing myself to be creative and to think outside of the box. The harder I try, the more of a struggle it seems to become. Herein lies the double edged sword of writing: being creative can be so effortless when the inspiration is ignited, when there is no inspiration the mental block is extremely frustrating and difficult to overcome.

Some ways that I get my brain moving include:

Read blogs of writers whom I admire and whose writing inspires me

Look up the headlines from newspapers online

Check out the trending topics on Twitter (this sounds a bit odd, but Twitter has some substance to it in terms of being able to spread news like wildfire)

Have conversations with people about important topics (of course, our daily chatter is wonderful but there is something truly inspiring about having a conversation with someone about what is going on in the world)

Read a book

Go for a walk/exercise (my mind goes all over the place when I’m exercising)

It just takes one idea!

A huge thank you to Carly for being the one to inspire me to create the Merzybean blog, as well as for inspiring this post! I dedicate this to you.